+Ultimate Underwater Blog

"Guitar Girl" is famous Penthouse Model, Zoe West. But I never would have met Zoe if it weren't for her arrest. And Guitar Girl would not have happened unless we were willing to sacrifice a guitar and Zoe brought her Halloween Costume to the shoot.

We just had to do a holiday theme for October and luckily Zoe West has some crazy tights and Amy Hope was able to channel her "Good Witch / Bad Witch" personalities for a sensational shoot.

For the Trick or Treat theme, Zoe's tights really sold the shot. The plastic candy bucket was a no-brainer to add that Halloween flavor. Check the reflection and you can just about see Zoe's wonderful face.

Then we wanted to try a Flying Witch theme so I grabbed my trusty broom and Zoe gave it her all in the deep end of the pool. Flying on a broom underwater looks pretty convincing when Zoe is swimming on the surface and I'm lying on the bottom at about 8 feet. But there's just one thing. Can you spot it?

Zoe West sells the pose, the prop master phoned this one in.

Yup, our broom pretty much sucks. Works great as a broom, but it just doesn't sell the shot as a prop for witches. Zoe is close to pulling off a great pose but no matter how hard she tries on this one, the broom says "clean my floors" and not "I'm a wicked witch".

Enter: Amy Hope, model, stylist and broom owner. Well, actually she "borrowed" it from her room mate and had the nerve to schlep it on the bus from Brooklyn without being detained by Homeland Security as a security threat.

Amy Hope with "real" witch broom, Starbucks, and supervision from Lucy, the dog.

This is where the "Good-Witch / Bad Witch" theme really starts to work and it's not just the broom. Amy did some funky face makeup to help sell the "Good Witch" part of the shot and looked overjoyed when she hit the 75-degree water on a cloudy September day. She's a good actress.

Facebook is a wonderful way to get feedback on all the images we did this summer, but actually getting prints and canvases out there at an art show with other artists really makes a difference. That's just what we did today at "Art in the Park", a community based art show in Piermont, NY. Any artist will tell you that producing a show makes you look at your work in a whole new light. The details and planning that go into the event are, quite frankly, more work than actually creating the creating the art.

But here's where it gets really great; you get feedback...LIVE feedback from people who walk by your booth and react to the photographs you made. It's a LIVE audience and the feedback was spectacular. I was lucky enough to hear a lot of "wow's". I also heard a lot of "is that really underwater? Or did they Photoshop that.. (whoever they is?)

And then there was Tony (below), who paints and creates for the joy of it all. He's a character (not to mention a talented artist) that padded around Flywheel Park this afternoon and was quite content at creating his own works of art just a few steps away from our booth. He was patient. He answered questions from everyone who stopped by. He was relaxed and cool. He reflected the true spirit of what creating was all about. Happy to be a part of it all at "Art in the Park" on a Sunday afternoon. And as far as social media is concerned? My bet is Tony is old school, his social media consists of saying hello to new folks like me and making us all feel welcome and humbled at his being so gracious.

Assembling the photo mats in the kitchen after printing all morning. There's just not an easier way I guess. Labor intensive but with the help of Sara and Sarah, it was pretty easy. SO worth it. We'll be ready for the show on Sunday.

Just some of the artwork that's available at "Art in the Park", Sunday September 21, in Piermont, New York.

The Epson printer is humming away, cranking out 8 x 10 and 5 x 7 custom prints. This afternoon we'll matt and package just in time for the show on Sunday. My family room is jammed with canvases and packing boxes so the art work won't get damaged by rampaging Viszlas.

And yes for everyone who's been asking, we now have the note cards which are going to go very fast. So get there early and snap these up as soon as you can.

Note cards come in a ten-pack with envelopes and some of my favorite underwater images from the collection.